“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Many authors write about “self-love,” which is just another word for pride. Sure, self-loathing and habitual self-deprecation are not good and healthy for the soul, for that is just what the devil wants. It is also true that the second great commandment is, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Yet the devil also wants torturous, ceaseless struggle with self-love and even making self-love into an idol. It is the idol of self-love that justifies the slaughtering of unborn babies at the altar of the false trinity: Me, Myself, and I; and it is the false god of self-love that praises a childless life in one’s 50s over a life of selfless giving to spouse and children.
Whether made into an idol or you suffer the ebbs and flows of self-love and self-hate, you are never enough—you are never enough for yourself. The perpetual struggle for self-love proves this. Self-love as an idol ends on an isolated, deserted island with no one but your tiny, self-inflated ego as the stretch marks finally take their toll.
Here is the amazing thing about Jesus dying on the cross for you: God’s love for you is so great that self-love shouldn’t even be a struggle. For whatever love you have for yourself—however much or little—God’s love vigorously overshadows it. Likewise, whatever hate you have for yourself, God’s love utterly annihilates it. Among many other things, your self-hate—even your self-love—was crucified with Christ on the cross.
Even then, God’s love is not about you, for there is nothing special about you. You and I were dead sinners along with everyone else (Ephesians 2:1-2). What’s so special about that? Rather, God’s love is about Him and His holiness; it is about His Son, Jesus, who chose to die for His enemies—you and me. You are not special, but God makes you specially His because of His special Son, Jesus Christ.
The Lutheran Column 